We ran out of sugar three weeks ago.

The canister has sat empty — not because I never have time to go to the grocery store, although that’s a fair assumption.

I’ve left it empty on purpose.

Over the past year, my husband has been dieting and exercising, and he’s lost about 60 pounds.

I feel very proud of him … and I also feel really, really fat standing next to him now.

I tried to go on his diet with him, but it’s a carb-restricted diet — no wheat, no dairy, not even any fruit.

I lasted three days. Life is just not worth living without cheese, or chocolate, or bourbon.

And then I recently read about a “slow carb” diet.

The idea is that the body burns carbs more efficiently when you keep them in their original packaging — a piece of fruit instead of a glass of juice, wheat with its whole husk, no white sugar.

You can have your cake and eat it, too — as long as the cake is made with whole-wheat flour and honey.

Now that, I thought I could do.

Especially after talking with a friend who is on a slow-carb diet. She’s allowed to eat dark chocolate and whipped cream, which are much lower in sugar than M&Ms and ice cream.

I choose to believe her. She’s a nurse.

I’ve given up sodas (except for that time at that restaurant when my husband drove too fast up the twisty mountain roads and I needed a medicinal Dr Pepper to settle my stomach). This has been easier than I expected, mostly because I never have time to go the bank so I never have money for the soda machine at the office.

And I decided to let the sugar canister run dry.

My daughter used the last of the sugar to make chocolate pinwheel cookies. “I didn’t have enough for the recipe, but I just used what we had,” she said. Munch, munch. “But these are really good.” My son seconded that opinion. He didn’t actually say anything, he just continued munching on cookies.

The first time I made a batch of pancakes without sugar, nobody noticed.

Of course, I did put chocolate chips in the pancakes.

I’m also trying to use more whole-wheat flour. There’s now a type of flour called white whole wheat, which is not as brown or as bitter as regular whole wheat.

There was a cookie recipe on the side of the bag. It called for whole-wheat flour instead of white flour, and brown sugar instead of white sugar.

(Is brown sugar better than white sugar? I know brown sugar is brown because it still contains some molasses, and I know molasses is good for you. Does it need to be dark brown sugar, or is light brown sugar OK? And what is turbinado sugar, anyway? Am I going to have to start buying agave nectar? I don’t even know how to pronounce “agave.” My head hurts.)

The kids gobbled up the cookies.

Of course, they were chocolate chip cookies.